SUMMARY: Alabama lawmakers are challenging a new rule by the Alabama High School Athletic Association (AHSAA) that sidelines certain high school athletes using the $7,000 tax credit under the CHOOSE Act. Senators and representatives argue the rule violates state law, which protects player eligibility and opposes restrictions impacting athletes’ ability to participate. They call for increased oversight of the AHSAA and suggest revising or repealing the CHOOSE Act. Concerns focus on fairness but emphasize that opportunities for student-athletes should not be compromised. Some lawmakers are even considering dismantling the AHSAA due to these controversial regulations.

High school athletes who transfer schools using financial aid like the CHOOSE Act are ineligible to play for one year, according to the Alabama High School Athletic Association.

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SUMMARY: On this Labor Day, News 5 NOW covers key stories: Former Alabama Crimson Tide and Dallas Cowboys linebacker Leroy Jordan died at 84. The Alabama Department of Conservation extended the recreational red snapper season as fishermen have caught two-thirds of the quota. An SUV crashed into Sage Health on Airport Boulevard, hospitalizing the driver. Mobile Police investigate a shooting injuring two men and damaging multiple vehicles. The Alabama Law Enforcement Agency bolstered patrols for holiday traffic, which is heavy today. Commemorating Hurricane Katrina’s 20th anniversary, viewers shared personal stories of survival and recovery. The broadcast ends with a poll about burying time capsules.

Local law enforcement is prepared for all the extra traffic and revelers this Labor Day holiday, a car crashes into a local business, and those wanting to catch some red snapper still have a chance.

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by Anna Barrett, Alabama Reflector
September 1, 2025

The president of one of Alabama’s largest unions said last week that people forget the meaning of Labor Day: You should not have to work every day to afford to live. 

Anthony Holton is the president of International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, Local Lodge 2003 (IAM). The union’s members work at Fort Rucker, an army aviation base in Daleville, Alabama, between Enterprise and Dothan. 

“When union density goes down, so does the middle class. The two literally coincide,” He said in a phone interview Friday. “When union density is up, the middle class is up.”

Alabama was traditionally one of the South’s more unionized states, due to its long manufacturing heritage. But union membership has declined in the state. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, union membership in Alabama declined from 156,000 workers — about 7.5% of the state’s 2.1 million workers — to 140,000, about 6.6% of the state’s workforce, in 2024.

Holton said the union has between 3,500 and 5,000 members. Its goal, he said, is to fight for the employees of the base to be “normal.”

“They’re not going to have to work double and triple and another job, and they can go spend the time watching their children play ball like everyone else in the world,” Holton said. “To be able to go out and be volunteer coaches, to be able to be someone in our community that is there all the time that are actually contributing. You’re not stuck at work all the time doing things that you don’t want to do.”

He said he is frustrated with lawmakers and politics in the South because the union is at a military base. He said it seems that Democrats are for unions, but against military growth, but Republicans are the opposite.

“What is wrong with not having to work two jobs? What’s wrong with having the ability to retire a pension plan? What is wrong with having safety standards? What is wrong with those things? It doesn’t have to be a left or a right side,” Holton said. “In my mind, it needs to be a decency side. What is decent for human beings, your people, your workers, people that are the backbone of this country?”

Holton said that there would probably be more unionization in the state if people realized that the issues unions usually fight for – fair hours and wages – are faced by their coworkers.

“I think a lot of times people forget we can grow our own allies by starting with … there’s a lot of brilliant people I know right there on the floors beside us,” Holton said. “They are working the same kind of jobs, worrying about the same things: Are they going to pay the rent or are they going to take their baby to the doctor?”

Holton’s goals at IAM are similar to those of Lance Ingwersen, the co-chair of United Campus Workers of Alabama, Local 3821 (CWA) at Jacksonville State University. The campus union launched two years ago, joining chapters at Auburn University and the University of Alabama. Since the launch, Ingwersen and his colleagues have been fighting for a livable wage for JSU’s hourly employees, per the Livable Wage Calculator by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Through that campaign, the campus’ custodial staff – among the lowest paid hourly workers, save for student workers – starting wage has increased about 15% from $9.09 per hour to $10.45 per hour, he said.

“It’s still well below the $15 and then later $17 that we’ve been pushing for those workers,” Ingwersen said. “That’s still the primary focus of our work on campus is just trying to get fairer wages for those hourly workers.”

According to the MIT Living Wage Calculator, a livable wage in Calhoun County, where JSU is located, for a family of three where both parents are working is $18.53 per hour.

CWA’s biggest challenge, though, is advertising its existence. Under a university policy, Ingwersen said, “Protected Expressive Activities” that are not sponsored by the university can only assemble in two places on campus.

“It’s very murky, so it’s really hard to let people know,” Ingwersen said. “We have to rely on things like social media and other stuff.”

For CWA and IAM, it has become a reminder that you should earn fair pay for the work you do.

“If a man or a woman goes, and they put in a hard day’s work, they deserve the wage that they deserve because they are the reason you are successful,” Holton said of companies. 

Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Alabama Reflector maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Brian Lyman for questions: info@alabamareflector.com.

The post Alabama union leaders say they’re fighting for the state’s middle class appeared first on alabamareflector.com

Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.

Political Bias Rating: Center-Left

This content leans center-left as it focuses on pro-union perspectives, advocating for fair wages, better working conditions, and the importance of union membership in supporting the middle class. It highlights labor issues and union leaders’ viewpoints without extreme rhetoric, emphasizing decency and fairness rather than partisan politics. The article also acknowledges challenges from both political sides, suggesting a balanced but labor-friendly stance typical of center-left viewpoints.